In small-scale catering, pizzas and comparable dough products are conventionally prepared and sold individually. The production of individually topped pizzas is comparatively labor intensive. In larger pizza restaurants, it is precisely this fact that has led to a strict division of labor, according to which one person kneads the dough and lays it on trays, another person adds the ingredients or toppings by hand and a further person bakes the pizza in an oven, in particular also in a wood-burning oven. Finally the pizza is served, although alternatively it can be placed in an insulated box for delivery. Only in smaller pizza restaurants is a single person responsible for the entire production of the pizza. It is a commonly observed feature of pizza restaurants that the person responsible for this prepares the pizza in the kitchen in view of the restaurant guests, with the aim of heightening the experience of the restaurant visit.
A mechanical or automated production of pizzas and comparable dough products is desirable on cost grounds. However, corresponding concepts exist only for large-scale catering and in particular also for the production of frozen pizzas. Conventionally a ready-rolled pizza dough, usually a frozen dough, is carried on a conveyor sequentially past topping dispensers, where toppings or ingredients are dispensed onto the dough according to the variety of pizza required. Corresponding concepts are disclosed in the following patents, for example: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,546,847 B2, 6,245,370 B1, 4,197,794 and 4,060,027. Such concepts are not suitable for small-scale catering, however, as the purchase and running costs are too high and the necessary size of the apparatus is too large. A further disadvantage lies in the fact that individual production of pizzas, which is precisely what is required in small-scale catering, is not feasible with such concepts. If, for example, a customer wants a comparatively thick pizza dough baked until crisp, with a very individual selection of toppings and topping quantities, this can easily be done by hand. Automated concepts for such an individual production of pizzas are scarcely known from the prior art, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,170 A discloses an apparatus for producing pizzas which replicates the traditional production of a pizza by a person as closely as possible to allow the pizzas to be produced as individually as possible. The central element of such an apparatus is a centrally located, rotating positioning mechanism with a star-shaped arrangement of supporting arms carrying a number of rotating positioning plates, on which are held circular trays containing the pizza dough. Distributed around the centrally located positioning mechanism in what is described as a “revolver” arrangement there is a plurality of topping dispensers. By turning the rotating positioning mechanism, the trays positioned on the supporting arms with the pizza dough can be turned selectively to appropriate topping dispensers. An individually created pizza can thus be obtained by moving it past the various topping dispensers.
However, the revolver arrangement of topping dispensers used in this concept does not in principle allow a large number of different topping dispensers to be distributed around the center of rotation of the apparatus. This dramatically reduces the maximum number of different varieties of pizza that can be produced. Mixed toppings, for example diced ham and cheese cubes combined, must therefore be dispensed from a single topping dispenser, further restricting the diversity and flavors that can be obtained. The positioning of the pizza doughs underneath the topping dispensers is comparatively difficult and can only be achieved with an appropriate choice of angle of the supporting arms and radial position of the dough carriers. This requires special mechanisms and control systems, which further increases the costs of the apparatus. Nevertheless, a precisely indexed positioning of the dough carriers in the chosen revolver arrangement frequently cannot be reliably guaranteed. Furthermore, the distance between the dough carrier and the lower end of the topping dispenser is comparatively large, causing the apparatus to become soiled and hence leading to unnecessary cleaning costs.